King Fahd
Saudi Arabia
Official
name: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Capital: Riyadh
Population: 17,050,934 (1992 estimate)
Land area: 2,331,000 sq km (900,000 sq mi)
Type of government: Monarchy
Government leader: King Fahad bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud
Legislature: Consultative Council appointed by the King
Political subdivisions: 14 emirates
Official language: Arabic, but English is widely spoken in
commerce and business
Official religion: Islam
Saudi Arabia does not allow the practice of any other religion
within its borders.
Currency: Saudi riyal ($1 = 3.75 riyals )
Weights & measures: Metric
Power: Both 110 and 220 volts, 60 cycles AC
380 volts is used for industrial purposes
Fahd was born 75 years ago as the eldest
brother of the Al-Sudeiri seven. He grew up in a household where
competition was admired, strength encouraged, and
Machiavellianism promoted. This is how Fahd learned ambition and
greed.
Hossa Al-Sudeiri, Fahd’s mother, grew up in that same household. In the first years of her marriage to Abdul Aziz, no sons were born. Following Saudi tradition and culture, Abdul Aziz divorced her because she obviously could not produce sons. She married Abdul Aziz’s brother with her former husband’s full consent. Not long after, she gave her new husband a boy. Abdul Aziz then changed his mind and asked his brother to divorce her so that he could marry her again. Hossa bore him seven sons—Fahd, Turki, Abdul Rahman, Sultan, Naef, Salman, and Ahmad—called the Sudeiri seven. These seven brothers with their sons now control Saudi Arabia’s future.
Fahd grew up in a tough household where his mother supported and nurtured his warlike and greedy nature. She was able to foster these qualities in all of the brothers except Naef, the Minister of Interior, who is not known for his courage nor ambition. The Sudeiri Seven, in one way or another, have tightly held on to power as the only ruling family Saudi Arabia has ever had. Their control is absolute and those who dare question them are excluded from their circle which in Saudi culture means ostracism from the larger society. Exclusion, or chastising; is like a death warrant. To be excluded is to be no longer accepted as a citizen, and to have society scorn the family of the "banished" one.
If Fahd’s ambitious and predatory nature ensured his emergence as leader of the royal family, then killing King Faisal showed how far he was willing to go to gain power.
Early on, Fahd recognized that the system of accession put in place by his father, granting age over experience, would not guarantee his rule of the Kingdom. He would have to wait for a number of older half-brothers to be king before he could attain the prize. Fahd has never been a patient person.
When ARAMCO (ARab American Marketing COmpany) was formed, the country was gaining financial independence from foreign aid. Fahd wanted to become part of the inner circle controlling oil revenues so he could continue his playboy lifestyle: Gambling and sex. So, late in 1969, after losing a lot of money in the Monte Carlo casinos, King Faisal summoned him back to Saudi Arabia.
In contrast to Fahd, King Faisal managed both government and personal funds wisely and with restraint. The king, in a fascinating expression of democratic values held open forums where, several times a week, he ate with anyone who wished to join him in his palace. This tradition kept the people of Saudi Arabia in contact with their king When Fahd arrived, he had to wait for Faisal to acknowledge him. Waiting meant standing behind a seated Faisal and in front of commoners. Making Fahd wait was Faisal’s way of punishing Fahd for his gambling losses without ostracizing him publicly. Fahd stood like a sulking child for the hour it took Faisal to finish his dinner. He never forgave Faisal for this humiliation, and even today, years after it happened, he still seethes at the mention of that day.
Since that meeting, Fahd plotted to kill Faisal. Faisal’s death would guarantee total power for the Sudeiris and complete control of the considerable amount of revenue pouring into the national treasury. It was a no lose situation for Fahd. If he killed Faisal, he would be in control. If he was unable to kill him, he would be building the political allies needed to ascend to power. The plotting placed members of the family against each other without involving the Sudeiris directly.
International events helped sway the Saud family to side with Fahd. In October 1973, Egypt crossed the desert in a surprise attack on Israel. The Yom Kippur war prompted King Faisal to support Egypt through a much-remembered oil embargo that created the OPEC cartel and raised oil prices through the roof. The new additional income generated by the demand for oil persuaded princes who previously hesitated to align themselves with Fahd to change their minds. The West hated Faisal because of the oil embargo and because of the greed they had witnessed in his immediate family, including Fahd. With the advice of Dr. Rashad Pharaon, Faisal, at the end of 1973, increased the annual compensation of all the princes in the royal family, thus defusing the palace coup that was being pushed by Fahd. The raise in their compensation alleviated the pressure only somewhat. Faisal had to worry about Saudi Arabia’s image abroad after the oil embargo, and Fahd took advantage of this embargo to seek international support for dethroning King Faisal. But Fahd lacked the know-how and the network to successfully lobby for that support. Fahd returned to the drawing board and found that a simple decision he made back in 1969 as Minister of Interior was his best bet.
Musaid bin Saud had a son studying at the University of Colorado. Playing on the son’s thirst for revenge, and on the Koran’s teaching of "an eye for an eye," Fahd, through emissaries, convinced the son that King Faisal, not Fahd, was his father’s killer.
Traditionally, the King in Saudi Arabia is available to be visited by his people at certain times of the day during a certain number of days in a week. This public event is called Al-Majliss. On March 25, 1975, King Faisal was in a mid-morning Al-Majliss. At that meeting, Oil Minister Ahmad Zaki Yamani was to introduce the Oil Minister of Kuwait, Mr. Kazimi. Among the people behind Kazimi’s large frame was Faisal bin Musaid, the brother of Khaled bin Musaid who was killed in 1965 by Fahd. As he got close to Faisal, he brandished his .38 pistol, shooting Faisal 3 times at close range. Faisal’s last words, according to those present, were "Fahd, I forgive you". Stories surfaced everywhere that an American girlfriend was behind the killing. The truth is that Fahd killed Faisal. He killed him to get his hands on the oil revenues of Saudi Arabia.
Khaled succeeded King Faisal, but he was just a figurehead. He never wanted to become king. When King Faisal was killed, Fahd, with support of the seven Sudeiris, met with the elders of the royal family. During that meeting, Fahd pushed to have Khaled relinquish the throne, but Prince Mohammad, known as "Twin-evil," because he used violence to get his way, disagreed. Mohammad relinquished the throne because of his age and let Khaled take over. During this historic family meeting Mohammad refused to back Fahd, claiming that he would become king before he let Fahd become one. Reluctantly, Fahd had to abstain from pursuing his dream of becoming king and let Khaled be crowned against his will and with the approval of Mohammad "Twin-evil". But Fahd knew that Khaled would be amiable to his wishes. In fact, even though Khaled was king, Fahd ruled the kingdom. Khaled would spend his days receiving dignitaries and hunting. His limited understanding of international affairs suited Fahd just fine.
During Khaled’s reign from 1975 until his death in 1982, Saudi Arabia experienced an unprecedented oil boom. Billionaires were created overnight, and billions were being stolen in the guise of commissions from contracts. Big-league racketeering had come to Saudi Arabia. For seven years, Fahd stole from the Saudi people as he waited for what he wanted most of all—to become king and to use the power of the throne to feed his greed.
Everyone knew about Khaled’s weak heart. In fact, he never moved anywhere unless accompanied by a team of American and European doctors and nurses on 24-hour standby in case of emergency. A Canadian nurse was a member of that team. In 1982, she was called into King Khaled’s room for consultation along with the waiting team of experts. As soon as the team started emergency procedures, and while the king was still barely alive, Fahd barged in and asked everyone, including the medical staff, to leave the room. Later, the nurse learned that another team took care of the king who subsequently died of a heart attack. In truth, Fahd did not want the regular team to attend to Khaled because they would discover the real cause of his death.
Several days later, a small obituary on the 12th page of the local daily newspaper declared that the palace cook drowned in a swimming pool. The cook, a young Egyptian named Youssef, was murdered. He had poisoned King Khaled’s meal. The king’s servants called the team that included the Canadian nurse when they realized that the king felt sick. Fahd forbade the team to see the King. One plus one equals two. First, Fahd killed Faisal, then seven years later, poisoned Khaled. He had finally arrived; he would finally become king.
March of 1975 marked the beginning of the end of Saudi Arabia as a rich and independent country and the beginning of the largest embezzlement scheme in the history of mankind. King Fahd is the mastermind and all his Sudeiri brothers are major beneficiaries and accomplices in his crime.
Since his stroke in November 1995, King Fahd has lost his ability to govern. Even before his stroke, he was handing over power, piece by piece to his brothers. As he grew increasingly overweight, he became less active. Now he no longer travels, and seems to be making fewer decisions. Despite the king’s written promise to open all of the Saudi’s investigative files on the terrorist bombing in Dhahran to the FBI, the Mubahaith, the Saudi national police force headed by the king’s brother, Prince Naef, has refused to share intelligence reports with the U.S or to allow the FBI to question 30 suspects, including the alleged driver of the truck.
With the king health’s deteriorating, Saudi Arabia is ruled by a committee consisting of members of the House of Saud with Crown Prince Abdullah, next in line to the throne, assuming more and more monarchical duties. In fact, Fahd had completely handed over power to the Crown Prince for almost the entire month of January 1996. Even though he has nominally returned to power, the king is too ill to meet regularly with visiting government officials; in fact, he is only seen publicly in carefully staged photo opportunities. He is rarely lucid enough to conduct government business. He reportedly can’t remember the last person he has spoken to. In an embarrassing moment near the end of last year, he "spaced out" in front of a foreign official, and the Crown Prince had to take over the meeting. King Fahd is so incapacitated that his brothers are reportedly talking about getting him to put himself in a nursing home. They hesitate to take this action themselves because they are involve in a power struggle with Abdullah, who is not one of the Sudeiri Seven. Prince Bandar and others family members of his generation are calling for succession to take place while Fahd is still alive. Abdullah has already taken over some of the contracts which were moneymakers for the Sudeiri Seven, for example, the Al-Yamamah contract with British Petroleum.
Saudi citizens are growing increasingly vocal, demanding a role in government policymaking. They see their economic situation deteriorating as the royal family grows richer. One man told Donald Jehl of the New York Times News Service, "The people need to eat."
Human rights watchers, like Nina Shea—an international human rights lawyer practicing for over 17 years—view Saudi government abuse as so irredeemable that they are calling for the U.S. to stop supporting the royal family financially and militarily.
The January 29 sharp rise in oil prices due to mistaken reports of the king’s death confirms the business market’s skittishness over the question of succession. When investors learned that it was the sister who died, oil prices quickly fell. The United States government is so worried about the future of the country that the CIA did a "hard-target" analysis of Saudi Arabia. The agency only orders such a report on countries it considers unstable or enemies. Saudi Arabia is not an enemy, but clearly the U.S. is concerned about how long the House of Saud will be able to hang on to control. After all, they and other Western countries have staked their Middle East policy on stability in Saudi Arabia. U.S. intelligence agencies also realize that they cannot count on the royal family to reveal the true effects of their rule. So, the U.S. is reportedly increasing its use of visitors to gather information and to develop intelligence sources among Saudis who travel or reside outside the kingdom.
Gambling in Islam is forbidden. King Fahd holds the title of "Guardian of the Two Holly Mosques". By being a gambler and a womanizer, he is desecrating the Mosques by using a title that is not fit for a person with his lifestyle. One of the reasons why Islamic groups are terrorizing Saudi Arabia in 1996 is because they feel that Fahd has betrayed not only the country but also Islam through titles and positions he does not deserve.